December 28, 2012

DeMarco Murray, who has 25 carries for 121 carries and one touchdown the past two games combined, had no fumbles the first 288 carries of his career. He now has two lost fumbles over his last 20 carries.

His first occurred at the Pittsburgh 8-yard line, denying the Cowboys points, and the other happened at the Dallas 5, leading to a New Orleans touchdown.

“We have tremendous amount of confidence in DeMarco,” Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said. “He’s done a lot of really good things for us. We’re going to hand him the ball and give him every opportunity. He knows more than anybody else the importance of ball security. He’s had a couple the last couple weeks, one in red zone and one coming out. That really led to points and took points away from us. He knows that better than anybody else. He’s carried the ball a lot in his life, and he understands the importance of securing it and making sure he can be a reliable guy that way. We’ll give him some chances, though. There’s no doubt about that.”

Murray said he isn't a fumbler, and the fumbles already are gone from his memory.

"It doesn't bother me at all," Murray said. "Last week was last week. I don’t worry about mistakes. I don’t worry about good plays. Once a bad plays happens, it’s erased. Once a great play happens, it’s erased. I have a short term memory, good, bad, negative, positive, I just move on and try to make a play the next time."

Murray said running backs coach Skip Peete has not talked to him about the fumbles. He already knows the value of better protecting the ball and vows to do a better job with that this week.

"When you start, and someone starts talking about it, 'Hey, you need ball security,' that’s when you start thinking about it, that’s when fumbles tend to happen," Murray said. "He knows. He’s a great coach. He knows how to get his guys ready. You know the ball is important. You’ve got to keep it away from them. Turnovers can hurt you.